Sunday, September 18, 2011

Verse Simmonds

I kinda like this dude. His voice isn't amazing, but with some good production and clever lyrics...I can rock with the kid. He's been out for awhile...but he dropped another mixtape recently that's worth listening to. Check out one of the tracks below.

I gotta tat your name on me?

That just sounds so backwards to me. We need to know it's real before I get your name put permanently anywhere. The track is dope though. The production is on a thousand trillion, as usual. "Yea, I told you that it's our world, and you’re foolish thinking I'm wrong..."

Dopeness.

I stumbled across these sisters on YouTube who do an amazing job of covering songs. Their mash-ups are insane...but this one is easily my favorite. (I bet you can't guess why...)

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Yo Trey.

I'm not really a fan of this new rapper persona that he's created...or the fact that he clearly hasn't had a haircut in awhile...but Trey still looks amazing. Me and Dace peeped the twinkle in his eye a long time ago (which can be seen in the 1.5 seconds that he takes the shades off)...but either way...dude is too cute. I guess he's done dropping singles off of "Passion, Pain, & Pleasure"(and rightfully so...) but he's obviously still putting in work. I feel like both versions of "Oh My" didn't takeover as much as they could have...but the video is here for the remix...and I'm not mad about it: This J. Cole track has been on repeat all day. That hook is TOO contagious. Trey definitely got his "Nate Dogg" on for this one. Clap for the kid. "IIIIIII need that."

Friday, September 16, 2011

Guess Who's Bizzack?!

"I've been gone for a minute, now I'm back with the jumpoff!!" Just kidding...(about the jumpoff part...I am back though! lol)

I've been on a little hiatus from this blog, not because I don't love it, but because some other people did and asked me to start writing for them. (Who knew that anybody was even really reading this? LOL)

But anyway, that's what happened. And although it's cool writing for different blogs, it's not the same as doing your own thing. They tell you that you can write whatever you want, but honestly, it only makes sense to stay within the theme of their site.

So, I'm basically doing all this rambling to say that there's no place like home. Especially the home that you're the head of.

So I'm back. Let's get it.

(Oh and I reformatted it a little bit. I had to steal the purple cassette tape background from my tumblr because I honestly can't think of a better symbol for me. I mean...it's purple. And it's a cassette tape. Too easy.)

"I'mma try to swim from something...bigger than me."

frank ocean [swim good] from christopher francis ocean on Vimeo.

Monday, September 12, 2011

I'm just sayin... *Drizzy voice*

After all of the hype of "Marvin's Room" (by Drake) has finally died down and everybody and their mother got to put out a remix, I figured I'd dig a little deeper into one of the lines that stood out to me from the very first time that I heard the song: "I'm just sayin, you could do better."



(I'm just using these 2 versions because they're my favorites lol)

How often to do you see someone with a person who you think is below their standards (or below what you think they're standards should be?) And I'm not talking about physically incompatible...I'm talking about when you know someone who is amazing. They're ambitious and intelligent. Funny, reliable, and honest. They're the kind of person that you can bring around your friends and have a great time...but respectable enough to introduce to your family. They're the kind of person who's easy to be around (which I think is the quality that gives them so much access to all these people who aren't, in my opinion, really deserving of their time).

This person is the same one who will end up with the girl/guy who isn't as smart and ambitious as they are. In fact, they end up with people who seem to lack many of the great qualities that you would hope any person would possess. It's kind of mind-boggling to me. I understand that opposites may attract but...damn.

Before I go on, let me clarify that I'm not talking about jealousy and haters here. I'm not talking about the scenario when you wanted somebody and they didn't want you, so now you're trying to find everything wrong with their new boo simply because you're a hater. I'm talking about situations like this girl that I know who's working on her PhD and married (yes, MARRIED) a guy who's working on his GED and they're the same age. (And if they had kids, I could see how this could happen, but they don't.) So, it's not just my opinion that she could do better, it's damn near a societal fact. And by no means, am I knocking anyone who has a GED. It's just that the disparity between a GED and PhD is drastic.

So, how do people get into these predicaments where they end up with people who aren't seemingly worthy of their time?

I don't know the answer to that question. There are too many outliers and mitigating factors to come up with a general answer to that. But the most important word in that question is "seemingly".

This whole thing is about perception. If I've looked at someone and thought, "I'm just saying, you could do better"...in my opinion, it either means that I think more highly of you than you do of yourself…OR…I’ve been misinformed about who you really are and what you want out of life and your relationships. I’m just not sure which explanation is more plausible. Either way, it's disappointing...and kind of confusing.

How could a person value certain qualities for his/herself but not value those qualities in their partner? For example, with the PhD/GED couple, she CLEARLY values education and understands it's importance to her career. So how could she MARRY somebody who obviously doesn't value that? And I understand that he could be the best person in world, with or without his GED...but come on.

And how do you tell someone that the person that they're with is a waste of life without sounding like a hater? What is it about these "undeserving" characters that make them good enough for the people that we think so highly of? Maybe the knowledge of self-worth is really the issue here?

It's an interesting topic. I don't think that everyone should be with people who are exactly like them, but people are better together if they can compliment each other. I believe that's true for any type of relationship or friendship.

Or maybe I'm completely wrong. Maybe everyone is deserving of whoever they have or don't have. I guess if they really needed more, they'd want more from their partner, right?

I just think that everyone deserves to be in a situation that's mutually beneficial. But if you're not, "I'm just sayin, you could do better."

As always,

Les Is More ;)

Monday, June 13, 2011

If there was one word to describe Beyonce's "4", it would be...

Amazing. Beyonce delivers an album that is consistent with the rest of her career: successful. The main gripe that I have is that it only has 12 tracks. When I heard the rumor that she submitted 72 songs to the record label for this album, I was hoping to get a lengthy project. (I’m fairly certain that there will be a deluxe edition that will contain “bonus” tracks, so I’m not completely disappointed.)

But in all honesty, I have no complaints about the 12 tracks on “4”. For every song that I don’t absolutely love (which is very few), I know that it will grow on me. The album has a little bit of everything. It’s smooth. It’s for the club. It’s for the car. It’s for the fans of her ballads. It’s exactly what I thought it would be.

I must admit, I think that the girls will like this album more than the guys will, but I don’t really think that’s surprising. Every song sounds like it’s going to be amazing whenever she performs them on a tour. It’s almost makes me want to start searching for tour dates even though nothing has been announced. The album is full of strong beats and suave melodies that come together and create great songs.




I know that everybody didn’t like “Run the World (Girls)” and I understand why, but I loved it. I understood what she was trying to accomplish with that track and I applaud her for aiming to create anthems, not just hits. I also think that it was a good choice for a first single, mainly, because her performances of that song have been great, not only for this album’s promotion, but for her career as a whole. (Did you see her Billboard awards performance? Classic.)

Her second single, “Best Thing I Never Had” is a great follow-up. I’ve heard people call it the “2011 version of ‘Irreplaceable.’” It definitely has that similar vibe of a woman’s independence and freedom. But it’s smooth and her vocals are amazing (as usual).

As of now, I’m pretty sure that my favorite song on the album is “Party,” which was produced by Kanye West and features Andre 3000. I honestly hope that it’s the next single. The “La Di Da Di” sample is genius and it’s just a “feel good” kind of track.

Some of my other favorites include “End of Time”, “Countdown”, “Rather Die Young” and “I Miss You” (which was penned by the new phenomenon Frank Ocean). “Start Over”, “Love On Top” and “I Care” provide the smoothness of the album while “1+1” and “I Was Here” allow Bey to flex her vocal skills.

It’s unfortunate that “4” leaked so far before the album hits the shelves, but I hope that everyone who downloaded will still go out and buy it on June 28th. I will.

Les is more ;)